marketsforISK

a blog of my experiences and observations of making ISK in Eve Online, from the beginning. - - - - Ingame chat channel: Ironforge Commerce Guild - - - - - - If you are a new trader and want to learn my methods, start at the first post from 14 May 2013 and read onwards . . . . . view this as an ISK Guide

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Saturday, 3 December 2016

The November 2016 Eve Online Economic Report is out - i am going through it as i write but, again, i find myself confused at the Trade data that is released. In summary, it looks way too low to me.The really simple explanation for this becomes apparent when i compare the Trade data to the Transaction Tax data. As a reminder, every sale that is made on the market attracts a Transaction Tax of anywhere between 1.0% (Accounting Skill Level V) to 2.0% (no Accounting Skill).Now, i would expect the Transaction Tax divided by the Trade data to be 1.0% because the vast majority of all Trade will be done by characters with Level V Accounting.And indeed in February, March and April the Transaction Tax divided by the Trade data was 1.00%.But then along came Citadels and the Transaction Tax divided by the Trade data rose at first to 1.31% and in November is now 1.69%.That suggests to me that either the Transaction Tax data is too high or the Trade data is too low.If i assumed that the Trade data was too low and if i assumed that the Transaction Tax divided by the Trade data was still 1.00% then i can deduce what i think the Trade data should be - see the table below:

Stated

Transaction

Assumed

Derived

Stated

Transaction

Tax

Tax

Derived

Citadel

Trade

Tax

Rate

Rate

Trade

Trade

Feb

977,077

-9,817

1.00%

1.00%

977,077

0

Mar

842,974

-8,336

0.99%

0.99%

842,974

0

Apr

849,840

-8,493

1.00%

1.00%

849,840

0

May

734,239

-9,596

1.31%

1.00%

960,200

225,960

Jun

566,864

-8,068

1.42%

1.00%

807,289

240,425

Jul

514,299

-7,708

1.50%

1.00%

771,246

256,947

Aug

496,178

-7,506

1.51%

1.00%

751,086

254,909

Sep

479,205

-7,713

1.61%

1.00%

771,749

292,544

Oct

513,051

-8,520

1.66%

1.00%

852,525

339,474

Nov

596,011

-10,057

1.69%

1.00%

1,006,316

410,305

What i am doing in the above table is to take the monthly Trade Data in the first column and the monthly Transaction Tax in the second column and dividing them to get the current Transaction Tax Rate in the third column - and there you can see the problem, it is rising above 1.00% consistently.

Therefore, in the fourth column i then assume the Transaction Tax Rate stays at 1.00% and so in the fifth column i recalculate what i think the Trade data should be based on the given Transaction Tax data and this 1.00% rate. The sixth column then takes the difference between this new Trade number and the monthly data in column 1 to give the missed Trade . . . . . and i am assuming it is the Trade done in Citadels given the Transaction Tax rate only started to deviate from 1.00% once Citadels were launched.

Or, what am i missing?

There is, of course, more to this.

Again, go back to February / March / April and the monthly ISK Volume (given in the economic report downloads) used to equal the monthly Trade data - as expected.

Again, from May onwards this relationship broke down. However, and this is interesting, the Transaction Tax divided by the Monthly ISK Volume is now a constant 1.29%. I can not explain that but it is interesting:

Wednesday, 9 November 2016

The monthly Economic Report for October is out.In summary:1) I am almost 100% sure the Trade numbers we are given are not counting Trade done in Citadels - see the reasoning below in Red.2) The banning associated with Betting Sites likely saw 24 - 25 trillion ISK leave the game on 12 October, give or take a trillion. (At $15 a Plex at 1.2bn that equates to $300k).3) Activity is up across the game: Production; Mining; Destruction; imports/exports; Ratting; you name it.

Items of note from Regional ActivityTrade - up 7%Trade finally rose in October for the first time since April. Still 47% below the February level.To put this in perspective, total Trade in October was 513 trillion ISK vs 977 trillion ISK in February.Now, before i go further i will say right now that i suspect these Trade statistics we are getting do not include the Trade done in Citadels. I covered this in a prior post when i tried to reconcile the Transaction Tax with the Trade we are told is being done.For what it is worth, i believe that the actual Trade done in October is either 662 trillion ISK or 853 trillion. I am leaning towards the 853 trillion. Below is my reasoning:Fact 1: From the Sinks and Faucets data we are told that the total Transaction Tax was 8.520 trillion ISK.Fact 2: in February, March and April 2016 (i.e. before Citadels) the Transaction Tax (or Sales Tax) divided by the Trade value was always 1.00%. That is not a surprise, the majority of the trade in Eve Online will be done by characters with Level 5 Accounting to minimise their Transaction Tax rate.Assumption 1: I am assuming that the Transaction Tax rate will remain at 1.00% after Citadels. That feels like a good assumption to me.Observation 1: the Transaction Tax rate rose to 1.31% in May and has been rising ever since and is now 1.66% in October. i.e. Transaction Tax = 8.520 trillion, Trade in October = 513 trillion, hence Transaction Tax rate was 1.66%.Outcome: therefore, i am assuming the Trade number of 513 trillion that we are given is too low and i believe the Citadel Trade is not being counted. If we assumed that the Transaction Tax rate remains at 1.00% then the actual Trade for October would be 852 trillion isk (=8.520 / 1.00%) which indicates that Trade done in Citadels was 339 trillion = 40% of all Trade done in Eve Online.Furthermore: go back again to February, March and April 2016 and the "monthly ISK Volume" always equaled the Trade number within 50 or so billion. Hence, Transaction Tax divided by ISK Volume = 1.00%. However, since May the Transaction Tax divided by monthly ISK Volume now equals 1.29% for each and every month since April. I can not explain why that would be. But, it is too much of a coincidence to be ignored and suggests something is wrong with either the ISK Volume or Trade or Transaction Tax number.That all said, lets stick with the Trade numbers we have and go from there:The top 10 trade regions are below:

Trillions

1

The Forge

372.1

2

Domain

56.7

3

Sinq Laison

19.6

4

Heimatar

9.2

5

Metropolis

7.8

6

Lonetrek

7.6

7

The Citadel

4.0

8

Providence

3.6

9

Essence

3.2

10

Tash-Murkon

2.0

No real change on September. As expected the top Regions grew trade faster than the average - that is the way of life, trade will initially grow faster during a recovery in the regions where liquidity will congregate.The Forge (Jita) remains dominant followed by the trade hubs of Domain (Amarr), Sinq Laison (Dodixie), Heimeter (Rens) and Metropolis (Hek). Lonetrek remains in contention to take over from Hek - go back a few months and it was challenging to be the number 4 trade spot. As usual, Citadel, Essence, Providence and Tash-Murkon make up the rest of the top 10.

As a reminder to new players, the main 5 Trade Hubs in the order we know: The Forge (i.e. Jita); Domain (i.e. Amarr); Sinq Laison (i.e. Dodixie); Heimatar (i.e. Rens); Metropolis (i.e. Hek).Providence is a business friendly Null Sec space that borders several highsec Regions: Domain / Tash-Murkon / Devoid / Derelik.To put The Forge (Jita) into perspective, 72.5% of all Trade (outside Citadels) is done there and this % has remained above 70% for a long time. That would mean that Citadels are not displacing Jita but actually displacing all of NPC station Trade.The other trade hubs though are a different matter. Domain (Amarr) has 11.1% of all trade but that is on a declining trend. It was 11.6% in March. Sinq Laison (Dodixie) has 3.8% of all trade vs 4.2% in March. Heimeter (Rens) has 1.8% of all trade vs 2.3% in March and Metrolpolis (Hek) has 1.5% of all trade vs 1.7% in March.The only other Region commanding more than 1% of all trade is Lonetrek at 1.5% though it is also seeing a falling share over time.I don't believe the falling share of the other Trade Hubs is due to Citadels, rather i suspect it is a feature of declining trade which penalizes the central trade Hub (Jita) last. In a universe of declining trade, what is left will gravitate towards Jita as Buyers and Sellers seek each other out.Transaction taxes rose 10%, so faster than trade. Indeed, Transaction taxes fell slower than Trade in the summer months - more proof that we are not seeing all the Trade volume in these numbers.Eye catchers of the month are:Citadel is a fast growing Region with Trade up 27% to 4.0 trillion though still 12% down on February.Outer Ring up 295% to 1.2 trillion - that looks like Blueprint buying ahead of mining barge changes? Is some 224% above February. The thing about buying and moving Blueprints is that it can be done in an interceptor and so the main risk is undocking or a lucky series of smart bombs at a gate.Vale of the Silent is making another attempt to get into the top 10 with a rise of 9% to 1.8 trillion.

Contracts: another way of measuring the Economic activity in Eve is to look at the volume of contracts placed. If i assume 10,000 ISK broker fee per contract then in October there were 18.9m contracts placed which is a 8% rise on September though up 10% since February. The peak number of contracts occurred in April when 22.3m contracts were placed.Office Rental Fees: office rentals fell 14% to 377 billion ISK, a new low since i have been watching the numbers since February. In part, i suspect, due to the fall in Trade and so corporations pulling out of Trade Hubs such as Rens, Hek and Dodixie and also due to traders moving to the Citadels. The Fees peaked in May, a month after the launch of Citadels, at 626 billion ISK. In fact, Office Rental Fees are a rare example of a cost that fell in October.

Production - up 8%Production rose 8% to 113 trillion ISK of items manufactured, now 10% above February levels but below the 145 trillion Citadel induced peak in May.So, Production is up 10% since February but Trade is down 47%. To me, this is a reflection of Corporations mining and processing their own raw materials for Citadel production rather than buying them from the market, or that the purchases were made in prior months to stock build, or the buying from the market was done in one step (i.e. not character A buying from the market to sell to character B who sells to character C etc but rather character A buying from the market to directly stock pile to manufacture a Citadel). And, of course, i suspect the reported Trade numbers are understated.Of note, Manufacturing costs as a % of the Value manufactured is running at 1.96%. I.e. in September 113 trillion ISK of items were manufactured which cost 2.2 trillion ISK in manufacturing fees.The top 10 Production Regions for October are below:

Trillions

1

The Forge

19.6

2

Lonetrek

12.7

3

The Citadel

10.0

4

Domain

6.4

5

Delve

5.8

6

Sinq Laison

4.3

7

Providence

3.5

8

Geminate

2.8

9

Deklein

2.3

10

Malpais

2.1

Delve is again the highlight rising 66% to 5.8 trillion and some 877% above February levels. Has been gathering momentum since February. Someone has clearly moved in.Deklein, the home region of the losing side in World War Bee, is for the third month back in the top 10.Two Trade hubs - Metrolopolis (Hek)and Heimatar (Rens) - are outside the top 10 and getting further away.The Regions of The Forge and its neighbours Lonetrek and Citadel dominate - they were always big production centers but now take on the role as being where Citadels are being focused in High Sec to take business away from Jita.

For new player informaion - The Forge remains the top slot - makes sense, many people will produce near where they buy the raw materials and/or intend to sell the finished items.

Domain (Amarr) and Sinq Laison (Dodixie) are the other two major Trade Hubs - hence would expect Production to be there in volume as well.

Providence, is a Null Sec Region but borders several highsec Regions: Domain / Tash-Murkon / Devoid / Derelik and has a more inviting stance for players - hence we would expect to see it be up there in the Production rankings.Notable risers since February that are now over 1 trillion ISK in production are: Cache up 91% to 2.0 trillion (that looks like a Citadel or two being built in there this month); Cobalt Edge up 160% to 2.2 trillion (again, looks like Citadel building in that region in October); Delve up 877% to 5.8 trillion; Estoria uup 74% to 1.7 trillion; Geminate up 44% to 2.8 trillion; Malpais up 585 to 2.1 trillion; The Spire up 439% to 1.3 trillion (that may be someone moving in); Tribute up 56% to 2.0% (again, looks like somone moving in).

Mining - up 14%

Mining rose 14% to 27.9 trillion ISK, a new high for 2016. A strong indication that activity in the game is rising again.Below is the top 10 Mining Regions in October:

Trillions

1

Delve

2.0

2

Malpais

1.8

3

The Forge

1.4

4

Lonetrek

1.2

5

Domain

1.0

6

Cobalt Edge

1.0

7

Providence

1.0

8

Tash-Murkon

0.8

9

Metropolis

0.8

10

Sinq Laison

0.7

Delve continues its rise - now 7% of all mining in Eve is in this Region. It used to be languishing in the 40s and now is the top Region for mining. Note Delve is also in the top 10 for Production. And Imports into the Region have been rising strongly in recent months. Here, it seems we have a new home region or someone.The Forge (Jita) which had been the solid leader until last month fell another place to number 3. Over time, The Forge has been in mining decline. This is also the case in the other Trade Hubs. At the least, it appears that efforts to move mining away from the Trade Hubs regions is working.

Destruction - up 9%

Destruction rose 9% to 33.1 trillion and so bounced off the 2016 low set in September.

Insurance received rose to 5.4 trillion though this is still a low compared to the 7 - 8 trillion that was received in the months of the World War Bee. As a percentage of items destroyed this is 16.3% - a new 2016 low. We should not be surprised by that - players are less likely to insure when ratting than when entering a war zone to fight. At the height of World War Bee Insurance Received represented 23% of all items destroyed.Insurance premiums paid rose 5% to 2.5 trillion ISK and represents 8% of items destroyed. Whoever runs the Eve Online insurance business is making a 3 trillion loss per month during peace time and a massive 4.5 trillion loss per month during wars!

Below is the top 10 Destruction in October:

Trillions

1

The Forge

2.2

2

Tribute

1.9

3

The Citadel

1.8

4

Providence

1.7

5

Black Rise

1.5

6

Lonetrek

1.5

7

Catch

1.4

8

Pure Blind

1.3

9

Domain

1.1

10

Sinq Laison

1.0

The Forge, as ever, remains top dog for destruction and represents 6 - 7% of all Destruction in Eve. That has held steady in 2016.

Catch has been rising during 2016 and having flirted with the top 10 no seems a more permanent member.

Tribute has again sprung into life and re-entered the top 10 at number 2 - either we are seeing a few battles here or Citadels being destroyed.

Imports and Exports

I normally watch the Imports and Exports as an indicator on the travel of goods or, more recently, the movement of war.That said, imports (and exports) rose 12.3% to 7.6 Trillion ISK which is a new 2016 high.Whilst Trade may be down 47% since February, Imports / Exports are up 31% which represents the moving of Citadel materials around Eve..Looking at trends: the movement into Delve continues; and we are seeing new signs of movement into Catch. Perhaps Tribute also.

Items of note in the Sinks and Faucets

Sink = ISK leaving the game (i.e. Brokers Fees); Faucet = ISK coming into the game (i.e. Bounty Prizes).In October there was an outflow of ISK into the game of 3.7 trillion ISK. The amount of ISK in the game is 963 trillion ISK, below the peak March level of 972 trillion ISK.The Betting Site bans occurred on the 12th October and appear to have taken about 24 - 25 trillion ISK out of the game. Not a record - that is held by 43 trillion leaving the game on 31 May 2016 and 32.7 trillion ISK leaving the game on 20 August 2014 (banning of SOMER Blink).Hence, also about 14 trillion ISK left the game over October due to accounts closing. That 14 trillion is still on the high side compared to the more normal 10 trillion ISK and feels like we are seeing an extra 4 trillion ISK leaving post World War Bee.The Betting Sites ban was a major headwind to what was an otherwise record net faucet of 34 trillion ISK into the game.That said, without fail the lines of Sinks and Faucets show that activity is rising in the game.

Going through Faucets of note:Bounty prices rose 17% to 52 trillion ISK - a new 2016 high and by far the largest faucet.Incursion payments rose 5% to 10 trillion ISK though this is on a long term overall decline.

Going through the Sinks not talked about elsewere:Transaction taxes were up 10% and Broker fees up 9% - both up more than the Trade value which, as i talk about at the top of the post, shows that the Trade number we are told is likely understated.Blueprints rose 46% to 6.1 trillion ISK which reverses the decline we having been seeing since Citadel blueprint buying peaked and likely represents the renewed buying of Blueprints ahead of the mining barge changes.Skills (book buying) rose 20% to at 10.2 trillion ISK, bouncing off the lows that were caused by players selling Skill Points.Asset Safety Recovery Tax rose 239% to 204 billion ISK - that is the side effect of Citadel destruction for you.

One odd item of note, there is a small sink called "Celestial", i have no idea what it is but it has a suspiciously round numbered outflow each month: Feb = 74.7 billion (i.e. an exact 74,700,000,000); March = 45.0; April = 2.7; May 8.1; June = 18.0; July 3.6; August 3.6; September 9.9; October 1.8.

The greatest inflow of ISK into the game as a % of the prior day's ISK was on 17 October 2014 when 4.9 trillion ISK came into the game (=0.66% of the prior day's ISK in the game). And indeed 18 October 2014 was the third largest day with 4.1 trillion ISK coming into the game. Not sure why this would be: Plex went over 800m though that itself would not cause ISK to flow into the game; may also relate to SOMER Blink reimbursing prior deposits (see paragraph below).

The greatest outflow of ISK from the game occurred on 31 May 2016 when 43 trillion ISK left the game - now, i have no idea what that was about but looking down the other record outflow days shows that April / May 2016 features a lot and so must be related to buying Citadel Blueprints.

The second greatest outflow of ISK from the game occurred on 20 August 2014 when a massive 32.7 trillion ISK left the game (=4.3% of the prior day's ISK in the game). Most likely to do with the banning of SOMER Blink from the game on that day.

To put this all in context, below are the top 10 inflow and outflow ISK days in Eve Online (UK date format dd/mm/yy):

Top 10 Inflow Days

Top 10 Outflow
Days

16/05/2016

38,266,990,704,582

31/05/2016

-43,005,264,398,399

14/05/2016

11,181,224,392,535

20/08/2014

-32,711,831,583,118

17/10/2014

4,918,151,977,811

12/10/2016

-24,850,862,704,804

02/11/2014

4,355,450,866,601

27/04/2016

-11,590,693,603,019

25/05/2016

5,617,788,337,856

13/05/2016

-10,585,123,745,593

18/10/2014

4,072,454,040,804

24/05/2016

-6,550,753,709,589

28/02/2014

3,520,746,585,466

18/05/2016

-6,041,579,702,193

28/03/2012

2,258,546,185,194

28/04/2016

-5,483,745,855,943

05/10/2015

3,770,661,569,226

08/01/2016

-4,849,236,603,559

30/10/2014

3,123,345,674,028

11/11/2014

-3,354,953,881,894

Player to Player Fees

This is a new piece of information. Since PoCos players have been able to collect taxes from other players for the use of player owned facilities but the launch of Citadels and taken this a step further. In October 3.6 trillion ISK (September 1.7 Trillion) was paid from one Character to another in the form of Citadel Broker Fees (1015 billion), Planetary Export Taxes (419 billion), Reprocessing Tax (132 billion) etc. Seems Citadels are clearly on the rise.

Main points of interest for now are that:

Broker fees of 1015 billion compares to NPC broker fees of 10.3 trillion. Hence, for now, we can say that Citadels command about 9.3% of the market (if we measured the market by the value of items placed on the market to Sell plus the value of Buy order placed on the market to be fulfilled). However, worth remembering that in most Citadels the Broker fees are priced very low to attract traders - hence i suspect this 9.3% market share is understated. I suspect it is somewhere between 20 - 40%, see at the top of this post.

Planetary Export tax of 419 billion and Planetary Import tax of 83 billion represent about 65 - 75% of the total tax collected which, as we would expect, shows that the player owned PoCos are almost everywhere. Given NPC tax still applies at player owned PoCos (hence, the tax share of player fees can never get to 100%) i suspect we can be confident that almost every planet now has a player owned PoCo orbiting it.

Reprocessing tax of 132 billion represents 67% of the total reprocessing tax. Now, for this one i need to work out if there is any NPC take at player owned stations, if not then it seems fair to assume the most Reprocessing is done at player owned stations (and i suspect player owned station tax is lower so that 67% understates the true market share).

Mapping all that onto Plex Prices

I greatly suspect players, like myself, use surplus ISK generated each month to buy Plex. When i say "surplus" i of course mean surplus to all other requirements - at the end off the day, ISK sitting in my wallet will never grow. It should either be about to be invested into my business or should Buy Plex.Normally, there is 20 - 30 trillion of surplus ISK generated which, through the mechanisms of trading, makes its way nicely up to the business owners and bankers in Eve. When i say "surplus ISK", i mean the difference between the Faucets and the Sinks. The ISK that leaves with retiring players is not a factor in all this - though the absence of those retiring players may become a factor in future periods.

The players then park some of that ISK in Plex. That is what makes Plex an inflation hedge - where inflation is defined as money supply. That is, the rising amount of ISK in Eve.

As a rule, surplus ISK is normally generated by existing players each month. However, we have had three recent events which have disrupted that flow.

Firstly, World War Bee, i suspect, will have seen a higher than normal selling pressure to finance the war. For a few months that extra ISK generated went into financing the war and i suspect hoarded reserves of Plex were sold to help out. That i suspect is now largely over.

Secondly, Citadel building will also have seen a higher than normal selling pressure to finance the cost of building Citadels. That appears to be scaling back to more of an ongoing expense rather than the rush we saw recently.

Thirdly, the rise in Transaction Taxes and Broker Fees has added a further 5 trillion of additional ISK sink to Eve. Worth noting that it was an additional 15 trillion ISK sink until players discovered "off-shoring". That is here to stay though good to see player innovation minimizing its affect. To put the changes in the tax system into perspective: in February 15.7 trillion ISK was spent on Transaction taxes and Broker fees as a result of 977 trillion ISK of trade; in October 18.8 trillion ISK was spent on Transaction taxes and Broker fees as a result of a mere 513 trillion ISK of trade. OK, i get that Trade may be under stated but Broker Fee tax rate is up.

The Betting Site ban remains to be seen what effect it has. It would be a drag on Plex if betting sites held Plex and had to sell to return ISK to players or if they had been net buyers of Plex historically - we will see.

The point here is that the recent headwinds to ISK generation are now lessening, indeed almost gone, such that we are again generating surplus ISK and so Plex rises have started to rise again in response. When those headwinds were the strongest in April and May we saw ISK leave the economy and so Plex prices fell. Prior to those months, ISK only left Eve on three prior occasions - August 2014, April 2014 and March 2014.

Tuesday, 11 October 2016

I have been taking a look at some of the stats we get from the Eve Economic reports which can be found in the Dev Blog.There are two stats that interest me because they look odd - and both suggest that Trade is being under reported in the Economic Reports:For what it is worth, i suspect Trade in Citadels is either 292.544 Trillion ISK in September (=37.9% of all Trade) or 117.310 Trillion ISK (=20% of all Trade).

1) Transaction Tax Rate: If i take the total Transaction Tax in September of 7.713 trillion ISK and compare it to the total Trade in September of 479,205 Trillion ISK then it appears that the average Transaction Tax rate is 1.61% (i.e. 7.713 / 479,205).That is odd, it should be nearer 1.00%. Indeed, back in February, March and April the Transaction Tax Rate was 1.00% using the same calculation. I.e. the vast majority of Trading is done by characters with Skills that reduce their Tax rate to the minimum level.But in May this rate rose to 1.31%, June 1.42%, July 1.50%, August 1.51% and September 1.61%.Hence, either the Transaction Tax i am looking it as too much (unlikely) or the Trade value i am looking at is too small (possible).

I am suspecting that we are not seeing all the Trade. Indeed, it is noteworthy that the divergence from 1.00% started with Citadels were introduced.Hence, i suspect the Trade we get from the Economic Reports does not include Citadels.If i assumed the Transaction Tax rate should be essentially 1.00% then i can deduce what the trade in Citadels is. The Table below does exactly that (all numbers in billions):Column 1 "Stated Trade" shows the Trade value in each month taken from the Economic Reports. Column 2 "Stated Transaction Tax" shows the Transaction Tax each month taken from the Economic Reports. Hence, column 3 shows the Transaction Tax rate - and you can see how it rises above 1.00% once Citadels are introduced.So, column 4 assumes that the tax rate should be 1.00% and therefore column 5 derives the new Total trade in Eve by dividing column 4 into column 2. And so column 6 then shows what the Trade in Citadels should be (i.e. the derived Total Trade less the Stated Trade).

Stated

Transaction

Assumed

Derived

Derived

Stated

Transaction

Tax

Tax

Total

Citadel

Trade

Tax

Rate

Rate

Trade

Trade

Feb

977,077

-9,817

1.00%

1.00%

977,077

0

Mar

842,974

-8,336

0.99%

0.99%

842,974

0

Apr

849,840

-8,493

1.00%

1.00%

849,840

0

May

734,239

-9,596

1.31%

1.00%

960,200

225,960

Jun

566,864

-8,068

1.42%

1.00%

807,289

240,425

Jul

514,299

-7,708

1.50%

1.00%

771,246

256,947

Aug

496,178

-7,506

1.51%

1.00%

751,086

254,909

Sep

479,205

-7,713

1.61%

1.00%

771,749

292,544

What is interesting is that if this is correct then in September the 292,544 trillion ISK of trade i believe is Citadels represents 37.9% of Total Trade in Eve.2) ISK Volume: In the monthly economic report downloads provided there is a spreadsheet that shows the daily ISK Volume. Now, i suspect the ISK Volume is measured via the market trades. If i take the monthly ISK Volumes then they indeed compare rather well to the Trade values in February, March and April but then start to pull ahead in May onwards - again just when Citadels were launched.The table below (all numbers in billions) shows the "ISK Volume" per month taken from the Economic Reports and compares it to the Trade per month also taken from the economic reports. They look very similar for Feb - Apr and then diverge.

ISK

Stated

Volume

Trade

Difference

Feb

977,156

977,077

79

Mar

843,028

842,974

54

Apr

849,886

849,840

47

May

743,030

734,239

8,791

Jun

623,940

566,864

57,077

Jul

594,832

514,299

80,533

Aug

581,670

496,178

85,492

Sep

596,514

479,205

117,310

Now, if i was to assume that the "Difference" is in fact Trade being done in Citadels then in September i could say that 117.310 Trillion ISK of trade was done in Citadels vs 479.205 Trillion ISK done in traditional stations.In other words, Citadel trading would represent 20% of all Trade done in Eve.Different answers? Or actually the same?However, the "Transaction Rate Tax" method seems to give a different answer to the "ISK Volume" method. Either i am saying Citadel Trade was 292.544 Trillion ISK in September or i am saying Citadel Trade was 117.310 Trillion ISK in September. Or, of course, i could be wrong on both methods.What is interesting though is if i look at the Transaction Tax Rate assuming the "ISK Volume" is the Total Trade in Eve. i.e. column 2 in the first table divided by column 1 in the second table.

Stated

ISK

Transaction

Tax

Volume

Tax

Rate

Feb

977,156

-9,817

1.00%

Mar

843,028

-8,336

0.99%

Apr

849,886

-8,493

1.00%

May

743,030

-9,596

1.29%

Jun

623,940

-8,068

1.29%

Jul

594,832

-7,708

1.30%

Aug

581,670

-7,506

1.29%

Sep

596,514

-7,713

1.29%

For Feb - Apr i get 1.00% effective rate (as expected) whereas May - Sep i get the same 1.29% effective tax rate each month. Now, that is too much of a coincidence! I can't explain why this is the case - but there has to be a reason why the monthly Transaction Tax divided by the monthly ISK Volume is now equal to 1.29% for each of the last five months.